Mr. Mehmood is a techi by heart with more than 27 years of experience, primarily in the insurance domain. In his role he is responsible for Technology, Operations, Customer Experience Management, Marketing and the Online Business. He is also on the supervisory board of Atena IT & Financial Service Inc. Poland. He holds a MCA degree from the Govt. Engineering Collage, Jabalpur.  

Q.    In Marketing, what kind of challenges you have faced in the last 4 months?

The last four months have been full of fear and anxiety with hardly any positive news across sectors. Just before the pandemic we had launched our ‘Bad News, Good News Brand Campaign’ with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, which is taken off as the role of Marketing has now changed from aggressively pitching products to showcasing empathy towards customer communication.

In this different world, we have been focusing on communicating with our customers rather than prospects. The focus shifted from selling products to assuring customers that we stand with them in this hour of need, so they may actually take it easy as our brand promises. And in doing so, we have received more appreciation from customers, existing and new, than ever before during this period.

In this new normal, the job has suddenly become to sell digital services than a product. The mode of communication too, has switched to digital or online platforms. This rapid transformation in the mode of communication from traditional media to digital and online platforms was a challenging task for Marketers.

There is an overhaul in marketing communication which has changed right from image, language and even the tone; basis the consumer’s state of mind. However, it is important for brands to communicate and assure consumers of their promise which will help improve their perception about the brand.

Q.    What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 8 months?

Given the pandemic situation, businesses have been impacted across sectors. This also has a cascading effect on the overall budgets of the business, especially with lesser revenues and fixed overhead costs. However, things have slowly started to improve and the economy is inching back to normalcy.

in this new era of Marketing with limited budgets and higher digital adoption, the customer base has shifted from traditional channels like print, hoarding, cinema to digital. This would require marketing teams to be innovative and adopt digital media intelligently, with the understanding that the investments in digital media too could be expensive.

With tighter budgets and new digital /online platforms evolving regularly, the primary challenge for CMOs will be to drive continuous customer acquisition and ensure engagement under the current constrained market environment. The pandemic has pushed the digital landscape, which is rendering the established 4P’s of Marketing redundant. These may soon be replaced with the new 4C’s of Marketing Mix, which is Consumer, Cost, Communication and Convenience; a model which is more consumer-orientated and rather more suitable in the current scenario. For instance, with consumer staying in-doors, OOH media is no more the preferred mode for communication and visibility.

In a service-oriented industry like Insurance, where physical face-2-face interaction with the consumers is the preferred choice, has been transitioned to the digital mode with emails, tele-calling and even chatbots taking over to define the buying journey and customer servicing experience. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. will replace 2P’s of Marketing mix with the 2C’s i.e. Promotion and Place with Communication and Convenience and help to build a brand perception in the post-COVID-19 era.

However, I would prefer to stay bit conservative in my tone and a cautious with my spends, unless a clear picture on COVID-19 emerges. We still have a large number of cases, despite public places not yet as accessible or crowded and public transport not yet fully operational. For some, it could be an opportunity to push the brand when the environment is not so cluttered. But, it will all depend on ones philosophy to operate.

Q.    Do you think online sales will take over traditional sales in the next 3 years? 1). If Yes, Why? If No, Why?

Through this pandemic, the online purchase of products and services has become the need of the hour. A large part of the payments/transactions are being undertaken through various digital/online modes, making consumers realize the value and advantages these platforms offer.

Most insurers have seen an increase in renewals and new policy sales either directly though the insurer’s portal or through intermediaries like Web Aggregators or agents. There is no doubt that there has been an increase in the adoption of online platforms which in years to come, has the potential to take a large share of the pie for sale of products and services.

Insurance will see a mixed model for sizable future, considering the complex nature of products. Some products have turned largely into a commodity; more so in the general insurance space like travel, two-wheelers, home, retail cyber insurance are going to see a significant shift towards online. On the other hand, health Insurance will be driven through traditional channels. That said, both the channels will exist and cater to different customer segments and products for growth.

Q.    Which are the new products you are launching in the next 3 to 6 month?

At HDFC ERGO, we constantly evaluate the ever-evolving risk environment and we are committed to offering consumers financial security through new and innovative insurance products and services as and when required.

Q.    Which product/s do you think will do well in the next 2 years?

The current pandemic has raised awareness among consumers about insurance, especially the importance of Health insurance. The need to have at least a basic health insurance cover has gone up significantly and most insurers have seen a spike in enquiries for the various options available. We do expect that people would like to have their own vehicle now, more than ever before, which may boost the demand from two-wheeler and small car segment.        

But, it must be noted that a part of the General Insurance business depends on how other industries perform. Demand for our core products depends on the kind of demand the related industries experience. For instance, demand for motor insurance will see growth, if auto sales go up.

That said, actual impact due to the increased awareness about insurance products and which one will do well going forward is yet to be seen in time to come.

Q.    Have you launched any product looking at the present situation? If yes please explain.

We have launched the new Corona Kavach policy, as instructed by IRDAI,  to help customers have access to at least one health policy which will provide them the required financial security in case they contract the virus.

We also recently launched the ‘Pay as you fly’ Third Party Liability Drone insurance for drone owners/operators. Despite the advantages drones offer commercial users, the safety towards third-party assets remains unanswered. Addressing the need we launched, the first-of-its-kind insurance policy in the general insurance sector. Drone insurance will provide commercial drone owners/operators the Third Party Liability claims cover which may be incurred while conducting activities like survey, mapping, monitoring, disaster relief initiatives, civil administration services, use during festivals & events, property management and travel & tourism purposes among others.

Apart from this, we have also launched several services for our consumers, to help them smoothly sail through the lockdown and on-going pandemic. Some of these services are:

·        TeleClinic Service – a  Doctor on Call service which has been made available for all who have the HDFC ERGO app on their phone, including non-policyholders, allowing them to get consultation from qualified doctors at no cost at all

·        #JumpStartThem – Offering customers the service to jumpstart their vehicles to revive car batteries and fix flat tyres

·        Door Step Repair – Offering repair services with executives visiting the customers door-step, either at their residence or a  place of convenience, to conduct minor repairs on their vehicles (two and four-wheelers) to ensure zero downtime while eliminating the need to visit a workshop

·        Motor Self-Inspection – a user-friendly service offered through the HDFC ERGO mobile app or website to help customers renew motor insurance policy without any physical documentation and inspection

·        Motor Claim Registration through WhatsApp – An offering to ensure customers can easily register their Motor Claims with us, simply by sending a WhatsApp

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